London Lingerings #2

I have slowly but surely grown to appreciate what London has to offer - even as I sit here shivering. I have certainly come full circle on that. As I look back on our time here, the things that stand out seem somewhat trivial considering all that we have seen and experienced this year yet to me they remind me of the fun times spent in London town.

My favourite place to be on the rare sunny and warm afternoon has been sitting on the balcony at Primrose Hill in a pub overlooking Regent's Park in northern London. Its not very close to home but well worth the trip.

I love watching Squirrels run around in the trees outside our apartment building - which is even easier to do now that all the trees have dropped their leaves.

In these colder months I love sitting against the heating panel in the living room and watching tv. I've always sat in front of heaters given the chance.

I like having public transport on time and so frequently.

I still get blown away coming out of Waterloo train station and looking up to see the London Eye and Big Ben.

I've liked visiting the markets around the city and the free museums.

I've liked living so close to the city and it being so easy and quick to get there.

While they aren't as exciting as they were before, I like seeing Double Decker Red buses around and can't even remember what Sydney buses look like. All I know is that they won't look quite right.

Although most of our friends are South African, I've liked learning a little bit about the English culture from the few English friends we have. I've liked being the token Aussie and being over patriotic about everything Australian.

I've liked being able to hop on a plane and be in another country in an hour or two.

I guess all in all, London has been for me the gateway to the world. It has allowed me to see and experience things that most people won't be able to accomplish in their lifetime and yet I've done it in a year. Its been a good year.

See you in 16 days.

London Lingerings #1

I've been requested by a couple of people (Mike T and Sam L) to add a few posts about things that will stick in Thea's and my memory from our time over here this year. So, despite it being almost midnight, I'm going to get the ball rolling with a couple of them. These will be random thoughts, so don't be surprised if they jump around a bit chronologically.

One thing that I remember is being impressed at how well Londoners dress. It's probably a factor of winter clothes naturally looking more dressy, but when Thea and I first arrived in London we felt very under-dressed going anywhere. Black coats always look swish, and so when you're walking around in three hoodies you feel a bit like a bogan. Needless to say, we have since acquired a few decent warm articles of clothing since arriving.

Another thing is the cold. I remember getting to about April and talking to someone about how I'm sick and tired of being cold all the time. No matter how many jumpers you wear, if the weather is just right you will still be cold. This is starkly different to Sydney, where you may feel cold for a total of about 2 weeks a year - the rest is easily manageable.

The food is different too, not heaps different, but enough.

For starters, they love mushy peas over here (imagine a bowl of peas mashed with a fork and slightly soggy). I have no idea what's wrong with firm peas, but there you go.

Indian is very common, which I'm a huge fan of. Indian curry is to London is what Thai food is to Sydney. I'll miss the huge choice of Indian that we have here, and it's cheap!

Going out is also generally expensive. Going out to eat is almost a 1 to 1 £ to $ ratio. The pub down the road sells burgers for £8. Going out for lunch will generally cost Thea and I between £25 and £30. I'm looking forward to take-away being a not so expensive luxury.

There's stacks more to say, but I should go to bed. Stay tuned for more.

Night!

(does this classify as a post Beast?)

Acclimatisation

It's a worry when I look at the weather forecast, see it's going to be 8 degrees, and think "good, not too cold then"...

Weekend Roundup

If we're to make 100 posts before we leave we better not leave another 5 day gap like that...

Anyway, the weekend was FREEZING! Literally. We had a slight dusting of snow sometime early Sunday morning. I was walking around in coat + scarf + gloves and I was still cold.

We managed to have a good Saturday though. I started off with a mens breakfast at church. There was plenty of bacon, and plenty of bible. It was based around the credit crunch and how as Christians we should think about it.

Then Thea and I went to the Imperial War museum. I'd never been before, so I found it really interesting. There is a real German V2 rocket in the main foyer. Those things are massive! They went faster than the speed of sound, so you couldn't hear them coming until after they struck. Scary stuff. They also had a range of around 300km, so could easily be fired at England from the mainland.

We then went to Borough Markets. I love that place. It's a food market, and there is so much tasty stuff there to buy and try, it's always a fun day out. We had rib eye steak sandwiches for lunch, served on Turkish break with feta, rocket and onions. We also had some tasty coffee there, as Monmouth, London's main decent coffee roaster, has a stall there were you can order decent flat whites, complete with rosetta.

After that we went into Oxford street to look at the Christmas lights. They were pretty cool. The main department stores have the exterior walls completely covered in fairy lights, plus there are lots of fairy lights up and down the street, particularly on Regent St too.

So, counting Museum, market, coffee and Christmas lights, that is four things of Thea's 10 things to do before we leave!

It's the stuff of nightmares

A kitten born with two faces. This is going to haunt my dreams forever.

Muray's Anniversary Ale

I have a 2006 Murray's Anniversary Ale waiting for my return. I'm certainly looking forward to it. I'm not sure if it is still too young though. Have any of you out there tried it yet?

Here's a photo I took at the beer festival last year, with the Anniversary Ale in the middle, and some other Murray's beers surrounding. I highly recommend trying some if you can get your hands on any.


What's funny though is that I searched for "Murray's Anniversary Ale" in google images, and my image came up numero uno!

Sunrises and sunsets for the next 4 Tuesdays

Date	Sunrise		Sunset	Day Length	Difference	Time	Altitude
Nov 18, 2008	7:24 AM		4:07 PM	8h 42m 42s	− 2m 55s	11:46 AM	19.2°
Nov 25, 2008	7:35 AM		3:59 PM	8h 23m 54s	− 2m 29s	11:48 AM	17.7°
Dec 2, 2008	7:46 AM		3:54 PM	8h 08m 32s	− 1m 57s	11:50 AM	16.5°
Dec 9, 2008	7:54 AM		3:52 PM	7h 57m 23s	− 1m 18s	11:53 AM	15.7°
Dec 16, 2008	8:01 AM		3:52 PM	7h 51m 02s	− 35s	11:56 AM	15.2°

Things are going to get tough...

Jacket Potatoes

I never really got into jacket potatoes as a lunch food before I came over here. However, let me highly recommend them, particularly on a cold day. They warm you up from the inside in a way that sandwiches can only dream of. Plus, if you get something like baked beans as a filling, they are quite healthy!

10 things I want to do before I leave London...

With only a month to go there are a few things that I want to do again before we fly out of Heathrow.

1. Revisit the Imperial War Museum - the greatest museum in London! I've been twice but I need to take Matt with me this time.
   
2. Go inside Westminster Abbey. I've been there a few times now but have been too tight to pay the £12 entry fee.
   
3. Soak up the sights and sounds of Covent Garden
4. Have a mocha at Flat White our favourite coffee shop in the city. Decent coffee made by Aussies and Kiwis.
   
5. Have lunch at Primrose Hill again
6. Revisit the British Museum
7. Go to the theatre one last time
   
8. Soak in the Christmas lights and decorations of the city
9. Chase squirrels in St James' Park
10. Go back to some of London's many markets - maybe Greenwich, Borough, Camden or Portobello.
    

Good food, good fun

The Good Food Show was good fun.

It was very similar to the SMH one in Sydney, as I suspected. One difference at this one was that some restaurants had stalls, and you could order a meal for about £5, which was pretty cool. Thea got a chicken curry, and I got a pork belly vindaloo.

We tried lots of samples of dips, cheeses, wine, oils, dried fruit etc etc. We bought some chocolate from this one stall - it was amazing.

Hope everyone is doing well back in Aus. See you in 32 days.

Awesome

Thea and I go to a pub quiz on Thursday evenings with a few people from my work. Last week we came first and scored a £20 bar voucher. This week we came second, and so only got £10. However, Thea and I won the lucky door prize, which is a free Sunday lunch with a bottle of wine. Awesome.

It is now Saturday morning, and we are about to go to the BBC Good Food Show. I understand it's basically the same thing as the SMH good food show in Sydney. Should be good fun. We are going with our flatmates, and one of them works for BBC, so we get cheap tickets. Awesome.

Also, my Nan's funeral was yesterday. From what I hear it was a really nice service. Nan's now in Heaven. Awesome.

darkness

I'm currently at work, it's 5:15pm, and it is pitch black outside. The worst part about getting dark early is that it now feels like about 6:30pm and I'm itching to go home. It's only going to get worse though...

My Mum

As some of you may already know, my Mum had surgery on Friday. She has suffered from a condition called Diverticulitis which causes severe pain in the intestinal tract. It is a family failing that has been passed down through the generations - my Great Grandfather died from a disease called Peritonitis which is associated with Diverticulitis, my Grandmother Jessie had the same surgery that Mum had over 10 years ago and now Mum has it. It is inevitable that I will get it too since there is little to do to stop it. Although if my Great Grandfather died of something which is typically the initial stages of Diverticulitis in 1937 then my family's history with the disease proves that technology is improving!

Mum's surgery went as best it could do which was fantastic. She was in the Intensive Care Unit over the weekend as she had some fluid build up which has since subsided. She's back in the recovery ward now.

Being stuck on the other side of the world with an 11 hour time difference isn't terribly pleasant when you know your mother is enduring surgery but it seems things have turned out well as they could be.

Not long now

In 5 weeks time Thea and I will be spending our last night in London. I can't believe how fast everything has gone. The first month or two went really slowly, but the past few months have flown! It's been a whole month since I was in Italy with G and D, but it seems like only last week.

The blogging has been slack recently. I know. I'm sorry, but as life in London becomes more then norm, there seems less and less things worthy to blog about. The point of this particular blog was to report back on our adventures, not blog for the sake of blogging. Having said that, this is post number 79, and it would be nice to get to 100 before we leave. So, with that goal in mind, the rate-o-bogging will be picking up to approximately 4 posts a week!

I have no idea what I'll be writing about in the next 21 posts, so I apologise in advance if I write less about adventures and more about my random thoughts (as if the world cares). Any ideas?

Anyway, here's a photo I found on my computer recently. It's of my sister Shelley and my Nan. Nan has been sick for a good 10 years now, but has been particularly suffering over the past few years. A couple of years ago Nan became a Christian after many many decades of my Mum and her sister Joyce living as salt and light to her. People may question why the elderly suffer, but in Nan's case it is now obvious God was being patient and gracious and waiting for the perfect time to bring her into His family.

Nan's suffering finally ended last Friday when she died. It makes me happy to think of Nan being given a new body, after the earthly one she's had has given her so much grief over the past decade. I'll miss Nan, but I find it difficult to be overly sad when I think of how happy she is now and how upset she's been previously. I can't help but smile when I think of how Nan must feel to be able to walk without severe pain in her legs, or not have to take dozens of tablets every morning to stay alive, half of which were to counter the side effects of the others, or to simply just be able to sit back and be comfortable. What an awesome God we have that He lavishes these gifts on Nan for no other reason than He loves her. Nothing in her hand she brung - simply to His cross she clung :)

It's freezing!

It snowed yesterday. Not here in Wimbledon, but out further west in Greater London. I was walking to work from the station and there were cars driving around with 2 inches of snow on their roofs. There were tiny bits of snow on the ground around work, but the heavy dump must not have been right near there. It's my ears that feel the cold the most. Ouch!

I hear you had the coldest October day in 30 years... tops of 14 degrees... No! Surely not! No one can survive at those temperatures!

Rich Beeston is in town too. He's here for a music convention. We hung out last weekend which was cool. Check out info on his band here.

One of my camera lenses died in Italy. not sure what the problem is, but it throws error messages to my camera. I think I'll wait until I get back before getting it fixed.

We lost daylight savings last weekend too. It's good in that it's heaps light when I go to work, but unfortunately it means that it is pretty dark now by 5pm. It makes the day feel later than it actually is. You're at your desk, and it feels like 6pm, but it's only 5...

Going to pub quiz in an hour. We're really bad... but they have Old Speckled Hen on tap, which is good.

Went 10 pin bowling last night for a social with our bible study group. I'm really bad - I only got 84. At least I beat Thea :) No where near Guthers 180 he got at my 14th(ish) birthday party though.

Funny thing happened at work the other day. There were these two guys chatting (rather loudly mind you) about how they've put on weight etc etc. They are both quite chauvinistic and make the typical male jokes about marriage (one if them is married). So I piped up and said that it is the responsibility of the husband to look good for his wife. You should have seen the look on their faces... priceless...

See you in 48 days!